At the end of a long press day for "Tron: Legacy," raven-haired beauty Olivia Wilde is still wired. In the sequel to the seminal techie '80s hit, she plays Quorra (KO-rah), a denizen of the digital world that young Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) finds himself downloaded into as he searches for his long-lost dad, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges). After facing hundreds of questions that have come at rhythmic 10-minute intervals, what comes out of Wilde is the tao of "Tron."

Q:Quorra strikes me as being in a constant state of discovery. Wide-eyed, literally.

A: (laughs) She has what in Buddhism is referred to as "the beginner's mind": a great sense of optimism and appreciation for all things. I was very much inspired by Joan of Arc; when I made the connection between Quorra and Joan of Arc, it all fell into place. Unlikely warriors. Childlike warriors. Joan of Arc seemed to have one foot in another world. She was led by a higher power, guided by compassion and selflessness. She had this rare combination of a warrior's spirit and innocence. That all made a lot of sense for Quorra. Her devotion to Kevin Flynn is what guides her. The addition of Sam Flynn really rocks her world and energizes her revolutionary spirit.

Q:You had to undergo some physical and martial-arts training, right?

A: The preparation was not just to be able to do the fight sequences and fit into the suit; it was figuring out who Quorra was. And I don't think I could have played her, found her, if I hadn't transformed my body completely. It's a part of becoming a warrior. You have to take on some of the strength a warrior would possess. You don't just learn how to fight with a sword. I wanted to keep her movements clean and simple, as opposed to riddled with quirks that humans have. I'm fidgety. I gesture with my hands a lot, as humans do. I touch my face a lot. I saw footage of me doing that, and I thought, "That's not Quorra."

A: Absolutely. Jeff, our writing team, our creative group - it's something we all took very seriously when preparing for the film. One person who was very helpful as we were creating that was Jeff Bridges' own Zen master, Bernie Glassman, who is probably the coolest Zen Buddhist alive. He's a social activist. His entire philosophy was so inspiring to all of us. The film raises so many interesting philosophical questions, it forces you to be constantly discussing this stuff on set. Even artificial intelligence versus humanity. That, of course, comes up in a movie like this or "The Matrix" or "Blade Runner." I was thinking, "What does Quorra, as a form of artificial intelligence, possess that humans do not?"

Q:Is there a hidden, nerdy Olivia Wilde?

A: (laughs) I don't think it's hidden at all. There's one scene - I'm showing Sam around the safe house and I show him a game of Go. That was my nerdy idea because Go is the one game that humans consistently beat computers at. (Takes on excited nerd voice) "We should have something about Go, because people who know about it will know computers can't beat humans and it'll be this cool reference to what humans can do that computers can't." So we had that line where I say, "Flynn usually beats me." I think that people who know might get a little bit of a chuckle out of that. {sbox}